A driver-airbag-apparatus-attaching structure that enables a driver airbag apparatus to be attached to a steering wheel with a single motion with the aid of a snap-lock mechanism is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-12117.
In the above publication, a driver airbag apparatus has a plurality of pins projecting toward a steering wheel, and the steering wheel has a plurality of through holes into which the respective pins are fitted. The pins have respective hook portions at the tips thereof.
The steering wheel is provided with a retaining member attached to the back side thereof. The retaining member is provided on the back side thereof with an anchoring wire that engages with the hook portions of the pins fitted in the respective through holes and thus anchors the pins. The anchoring wire is made of an elastic metal wire material. The anchoring wire runs along the back surface of the retaining member across the through holes. The retaining member has locking portions provided adjacent to the respective through holes and retaining the anchoring wire. The anchoring wire is retained by the locking portions in such a manner as to be elastically deformable so that the anchoring wire retracts to the outside of the through holes by being pushed by the pins when the pins are inserted into the through holes.
In attaching the driver airbag apparatus to the steering wheel, the driver airbag apparatus is positioned on the front-surface side of the steering wheel, the pins of the driver airbag apparatus are fitted into the respective through holes of the steering wheel, and the driver airbag apparatus is brought near to the steering wheel. Thus, the pins are pushed into the respective through holes, the hook portions at the tips of the respective pins push the anchoring wire aside, and the hook portions project from the back side of the steering wheel. Subsequently, when the anchoring wire goes over the hook portions, the anchoring wire elastically restores the original form and is caught by the hook portions, whereby the driver airbag apparatus is prevented from moving away from the steering wheel. Thus, the work of attaching the driver airbag apparatus to the steering wheel is finished.
In Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-12117, the anchoring wire is provided around a metal core of the steering wheel in such a manner as to sequentially run across the through holes. Meanwhile, there is another configuration in which the through holes are provided with respective anchoring wires.
In the driver-airbag-apparatus-attaching structure disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-12117, the anchoring wire needs to be provided on the back side of the steering wheel in such a manner as to run across the through holes of the steering wheel, and the locking portions that retain the anchoring wire in such a manner as to be elastically displaceable need to be provided adjacent to the respective through holes. Therefore, the mechanism has a complicated configuration.
Furthermore, in a case where the anchoring wire is provided around the metal core of the steering wheel as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-12117 or a plurality (typically, three) of anchoring wires are provided for the through holes, respectively, the anchoring wire or wires occupy a relatively large space within a steering-wheel plane, including the space required for the anchoring wire to be displaced within the steering-wheel plane when the driver airbag apparatus is attached. This may limit the provision of devices such as a damper, a paddle switch, and a cruise control switch, excluding the driver-airbag-apparatus-attaching structure, within the steering-wheel plane.